One of the truly great things about the AppStore model is the fact that it allows for small indie developers to truly shine. A few years ago, one such teams made an original Flash game based around safely transporting an object to the surface by destroying the supporting structures. Since then, the idea has found many implementations, e.g. Tiki Totems, Tumbledrop (TMA Review). Today we’ll take a look at another one – Saving Private Sheep by BulkyPix – a humorous reiteration of the same concept.

Oh puzzle games: you bring so much amusement and enjoyment to our lives and yet, you also seem to always bring plenty of heartbreak and annoyance. This is how I have always felt about puzzle games. My love/hate relationship with them has gone on for many years across many platforms. In the end no matter how mad or frustrated I get, I always go back. It’s an addiction. Luckily for me, I just found my latest fix with Emantras’ latest release, Rafter, a puzzle game designed around the central theme of Leonardo Da Vinci. Feel free to discuss this review of Rafter in our forums.

The App Store is certainly not short of Match 3 titles, and clearly Playbrains were perfectly aware of this when developing their latest title – Babo Crash. This is why they’ve attempted to make it different from every other game out there and give it something really special. On the one hand, gameplay wise they’ve done a great job, but there are some features which could be added in which would make it so much better. Feel free to discuss this review of Babo Crash in our forums.

Gyrotate is a puzzle game where you must match shapes – similar to PopCap’s Bejeweled 2. You still have a grid where you swap shapes around to match them, but in Gyrotate the clue is in the name. To match, you must rotate sections of the board so the pieces line up. For this reason, the gameplay mechanic isn’t quite as fast-paced and you must be more accurate with your moves in order to get the tiles where you need them to be. Unlike Bejeweled though, you must match four or more tiles in Gyrotate. Feel free to discuss this review of Gyrotate in our forums.

Last summer I had a chance to review one of my favorite flash-turned-iDevice-games, Nintaii, a very addictive puzzle game from developer Concrete Software. As anyone who’s read my previous reviews knows, I am addicted to “pick up and play” titles and that’s exactly what it is. Coming back now with a sequel to their wildly popular Nintaii, Nintaii2 is Concrete Software’s attempt at making a good game great. Feel free to discuss this review of Nintaii2 in our forums.

Falling block puzzle games like Tetris caused me to buy my first Gameboy. The simplicity and frustration of fitting things in where they can’t possibly fit is instant elation. Mikks doesn’t rest on the same ol’ Tetris mechanic; it both expands and deflates the idea: blocks fall, but not in compound shapes. They come singly, and quickly, and rather than frantically finding a niche for each, you have to perform a different magic: coaxing them to change their colours.

No one knows me as a puzzle challenger. Rather, I get dubbed slow and dull by my best of friends; at the worst, the nicknames sting. Despite that, I enjoy a good challenge. Dizzy Drops is that sort of challenge – it’s the sort of mad-finger flicking game that reminds me of crazy non-video arcade games in the past: bop the weasel, two hand splat – that sort which is full of physical action. Scale things down and this finger-crosser of a game will have you sweatin’.

Tumbledrop is basically a game of physics. On entering a level, you’re presented with a variety of different shapes in formation. Somewhere in the formation will be a pink star. Your aim is to remove pieces from the screen by tapping them. This must result in the pink star landing safely on the island or platform in the level. If you don’t succeed, your star will plunge into icy waters with a distressed look on its face. Sounds simple, right? Well at first it is… but naturally it gets much harder.

It’s been a little while since I’ve played a good maze game. They are one of those things that no matter what you do, or how you package it, the main goal is always quite simply to get from A to B. It’s unique in that the more simple it is, the more enjoyable it is. You don’t need a million dollar budget to make a maze game. You just need creativity. The folks at Ironshod Limited seem to have that coming out the ***. I recently was able to get my hands on their second appstore release Reverse Maze, read on to see if I found my way or got lost in the maze. Feel free to discuss this review of Reverse Maze in our forums.

There are a lot of casual games in the App Store nowadays. One of the biggest trends being versions of successful browser/flash based games being retooled to run on your iDevice. As usual, some hit and some miss, but the formula is generally proven to be somewhat successful. From developers eTicket Apps comes the explosive Detonate!, a demolition style game filled with bars, beams and bombs. Read on to see if the title blew up, or fizzled out. Feel free to discuss this review of Detonate! in our forums.